Yet all of these reasons are why the bump he has hit of lately is so scrutinized and talked about. It has been felt in our performance, deeply. From such a high to where he is now. We have been trying to defend him but his performances of late have not helped, let alone the badgering he has gotten from our rival team's fans. The number of times I have heard "Özil is good at disappearing" are countless. Even the Sun called him a "42m flop." That performance against Liverpool was his rock bottom. It is becoming hard for us to defend him and though I believe he will be at his best soon in the Arsenal way, we really need him to hit his heights immediately, if we want to push for the title.
Özil still possesses great midfield stats. For example, the AFC vs MUFC game on Wednesday night, Özil had made more key passes than the Manchester team COMBINED! Manchester didn't create much and they were clearly happy with a point but for a team that possesses the ranks of Mata, Rooney and RvP, it is a number that speaks great volumes. But for anyone who watched that match, they will know that all those passes where not much effective. Meaningless back and forth, and whenever a chance was created, though few they were, it wasn't converted. It was not what we came to know of him but lets ask ourselves this, does this make any sense? You create that number of key passes, hold passing stats of that number and you are still an ineffective midfielder?
The problem is not with him but rather our attack in general. Arsenal's search for a world-class attacker in the summer was for just causes, and even though we didn't get anyone in the January transfer window, it was not due to us solving our attacking issues. BELIEVE ME Bendtner and Sanogo returning from injury is NOT a solution to any team's problem whatsoever, especially one of our pedigree. Olivier Giroud has picked up his game but I believe it has to do more with his mentality than his talents. I think now he is believing more that he is a capable striker. The performance can change and given his mentality, it is a great improvement and he can get even better, but for me, currently, he is still not doing the job properly. I know when he scores, we will all shout his name and love him, and when he misses, not so much, but he is not leading our attack as I wished our attack would have been led. I still love him, as of all our players, but the negative aspects to his game is what is bringing down our attack, and in return, Özil.
When Özil was at Real Madrid, which were clearly his best days, he played along some of the fastest, smartest and sneakiest attackers in the game. Ronaldo could beat anyone in a sprint and even if he wasn't in a position to, he didn't have to. His dribbling skills alone could scare the best of defender. Benzema, the type of striker who mixes great positioning, great hold-up play and a fairly good brute force, knows how to combine them all to a deadly combination. Higuin, whom I was referring to when I said sneakiest, is a very lethal striker. He is known for his positioning, conversion rate in the box and, being sneaky and getting pass defenders while not noticing. That was what Özil had to work with. Now lets be fair, Giroud is FAR from mobile. His speed, for a league known for its physicality and speed, is not great. His positioning isn't great as I have not frequently seen him get behind the defensive lines and score. He doesn't maneuver pass defenders as often as I would like. He uses his strength well and has improved his hold-up play but he occasionally throws his body recklessly at defenders. All these attributes have always been existent but whenever Theo played alongside him, they blended well with each other and complemented one another, similar to that of the defensive pair of Mertesacker and Koscielny. Every negative was cancelled out by the other's positive. Giroud being strong and a strong aerial presence would compliment Theo, the fast, quick thinking attacker, who could catch a defender sleeping any time. But Theo isn't here and wont be for a long time to come, and with Arsene's unwillingness to play Podolski, our attack has felt very ineffective and much too slow. Counter-attacks are so unfruitful when you have one slow attacker and three midfielders attempting it. The lack of true wingers has hurt us/ This was something noticed on Wednesday's game as many times Özil attempted the fast counter-attack and since he isn't very fast nor much of a dribbler, he was forced to pull wide and with the lack of fast strikers running down the middle to aid his attack, he would either be forced off the ball or to slow down and pass back. How I DESPISE those pass backs.
Our attack in return has been very 1-dimensional. With no pace, no counter-attacking and no shear strength, we have been over-reliant on "walking the ball" into the net. The low, quick, one-two passes from one player to another. Santi to Giroud, Giroud holds play, Santi moves passes the defense, Giroud either back heels it or taps the ball into Santi's path, Santi in return passes the defenders, he shoots, he SCORES! How many times have we seen this approach, either successfully or not. We seem to attempt it one too many times. It works against weak team with little defensive coherence but against the big teams with defensive minds as strong as steel, we have come up short. Other than Liverpool at home and to a lesser extent, Tottenham, there is a reason we are yet to beat one of the top teams in the league. There needs to be more variety in our approach to attacking.
Remember the Arsenal attack of dare and flare of previous seasons? This Arsenal attack has flare, there is no shortage, but the latter, I am not so sure. Cazorla and Özil are clearly very talented and creative, no doubt about that, and they should make us forget about the beauty of a midfielder Fabregas was, but though they clearly make up for his abilities if not surpass them, they don't have his dare. This is why I still miss Fabregas and it is not because he was a better playmaker than the ones we have now, but for the fact that he would attempt the unbelievable. It wasn't just short passes, one-two's, tiki taka. He would do everything, incorporate other aspects to his approach. He had many different tricks up his sleeves and it was hard to tell which one he would use. This Arsenal attack, midfield specifically, have not. There aren't many tricks and if there are, we aren't using them. We don't attempt, we don't try and pull of amazing passes, no long passes, chips, over the wall balls. None. The usual short, quick passing. We got to attempt more and try different things. Be a lot more creative than we are now. Remember this goal? When was the last time we have seen Arsenal attempt a pass like this?
I am not sure whether these are all down to Arsene Wenger's tactics or not, but they have substantially played in Özil's demise. Özil has always been a guy to feed of his players and their attacking style, but our attacking style has not been one to compliment Özil much. His attitude has played it's part but has proved against Man. U that he can fight, and he did. If we want him to improve we need to step back and take a look at the big picture at hand and fix the problem with out attack. A shake-up, one of same level as of last season, is in need and when one comes, expect Özil to be back at his best.
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